reseting the timeoutLength correctly

[Roofy webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi there,
I am creating a game where the user has 2 minutes to complete the game. if the user finishes within the time allowed, the playhead moves back to frame 5 and the time gets reset to a smaller amount of time. Though 2 things I was reading was that 1. reading a thread on this forum that John has remarked that using timers can cause memory leaks if not used properly, and 2. I also read in the lingo dictionary that comes with Director 8.51 said something about I can use the timeoutPlay to reset the timeoutLength. Though I am kind of lost after reading that timers can cause memory leaks if not used properly. So what would be the correct way to set the timeoutLength back to 0? Previously I have just been using this one handler down below that gets called everytime the user replays the game.

on gameStart()
-- rember this handler gets called evertime the user replays the game --
gameReplays = gameReplays + 1
the timeoutLegnth = (120 + integer(member("countDown").text) - (gameReplays * 30)) * 60
end gameStart

would this cause a memory leak or even if it wouldn't, are you suppose to use the timeoutLength only once and use someother kind of timer varible to reset it? I did notice once that I had to restart the computer after repedively doing this when my computer got to the point that I barely could move the mouse arround the screen like if the track ball was dirty but it wasn't and typing in text would not appear on the screen until about 3 seconds later. Meaning if I typed in the word "cat" the "c" would appear after 3 seconds went by then the "a" would appear 3 seconds after the "c" appeared and the "t" would appear 3 seconds after that.

[MosseMilk webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hi

I usually use the milliseconds, and one way to do it is like this.


Global GameTimer, GametimerDiff

on gameStart

GameTimer = the Milliseconds
GametimerDiff = 60000 * 2 -- 2 is minutes

End

in the game :

if the milliseconds >= GameTimer + GametimerDiff then
-- End game stuff
End


/M

[Roofy webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

thats an idea, though still I really like to know how to use the timeoutLength just for learning purposes. If anybody could help me out here.

[Roofy webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

I saw an example that randomly calls out a new timeoutLength to a new value. So I am really confused about this. Can I reset the timeoutLength to a new value before the original timeoutLength = 0. Meaning say a user finidhes my game before time runs out can I take that value of whats leftover and add it to my new timeoutLength. So lets say that if the user finishes the game with 5 seconds left can I take that value and add another 60 seconds to it like this

the timeoutLength = the timeoutlength + (60 * 60)

or is this going to cause a memoryleak? I could of sworn that somebody said that if the programmer doesn't use timeing lingo correctly it could cause memory leaks. please help